The changing seasons
by smallvillephantom14
Summary: "Jack felt tears gather at the corner of his eyes, this was all he wanted, everything he'd asked the moon for and he couldn't even remember it." Slightly AU-ish but not really.


**Hey guys! Hope you enjoy it! **

-Rotg-

Bunny slammed the groundhog up against the dirt wall of his burrow; the rash action caused the three other guardians to bristle.

"What the hell did ya do ta frostbite!" Bunny growled as he placed the sharper end of his boomerang under Punxsutawney Phil's chin.

The groundhog gulped.

"I-I- really don't know what you're talking about…Jacks fine. I just had a meeting with him last week about the shifting of the seasons, since I predicted an early spring this year. I didn't do anything to hurt him!" Phil sputtered.

"Bunny, drop over grown rodent." North commanded as he placed his hand on the hilt his sheathed sword. Bunny snorted and dropped Phil "If what you say is true, then where is young winter sprite now?"

"He's out budding the trees and melting snow like he always does this time of year." Phil explained, holding his hands up in surrender. North made him twice as nervous as the Pooka did.

"Melting snow? The boy brings tha' bloody snow! He can't melt it." Bunny growled. "Quit lying to us you Drongo!"

The ground hog blinked in confusion before it dawned on him. "Manny didn't tell you much about Jack did he…."

Tooth tilted her head, confusion clear on her face. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Jack isn't always….um.. Well, the Jack you're used to." Phil muttered hesitantly, he honestly didn't know how he was going to explain this to them. "You know it's probably better that I call the kid here."

Bunny's ears perked up.

"You can do that?" the Pooka asked, fixing the rodent with a look that was a mixture of light envy and pure dumbfounded-ness.

Phil ignored Asters question and walked over to the other side of his burrow, motioning for the guardians to follow him. He led them through a narrow tunnel— a tunnel that north almost couldn't fit through— and then out into one of the nicest gardens that Aster had ever seen outside of his warren.

"Didn't know the gumby had a green thumb." Aster grumbled out loud to no one in particular.

Phil finally stopped in front of a pure white tree that had a number of different symbols carved into its wood. On each branch there was a different symbol: ornate snowflakes, suns, budding seedlings and scattered leaves. The carvings of the budding seedlings were outlined in one of the most vibrant pinks that aster had ever seen, in fact he was almost sure that it was glowing.

Phil picked up a short stick from the ground and slammed it against the tree trunk, causing the big four to jump in surprise. The entire tree lit up bright neon pink before the color seeped from it and into the ground, sending out pink ripples in every direction.

Phil smiled, "Whelp, now the only thing we have to do is wait."

"What was with light show?" North asked.

Phil just shrugged. "I don't know, it's just always done that. All I know is that Ja—."

Phil was cut off as a whirl off green, gray and white barreled into the side of him, sending both of them to the ground.

"Damn it, Jack!" Phil cursed as he stood up and brushed himself off, while 'Jack' stayed on the ground slowly dying of laughter.

The guardians would know that signature laugh anywhere.

"Jack?" North and Bunny blurted out at the same time. Tooth gasped and covered her mouth and sandy formed a snowflake with a question mark over his head.

The boy grinned up at them from where he was sitting on the ground, his white and green streaked hair flopped in front of his eyes as he tugged on his faded gray t-shirt. The t-shirt had 'going green' printed across it with pealing letters. The base of the shirt bunched up around the waist of his khaki pants. The only thing this 'Jack' had in common with their Jack was the fact that they looked similar and that they were both bare foot.

The young boy looked up at the guardians with confusion. "That's me! Do I know you guys from somewhere….?"

North blanched, before sharing a worried look with his comrades.

"Phil, we wish to talk." North said as he cast an anxious smile in 'Jacks' direction.

Jack raised an eyebrow at the gesture. He watched as Phil waddled over to the 4 strangers, soon they were exchanging hushed whispers.

Jack rolled his eyes and flopped onto the ground, crushing the bed of flowers beneath him, causing their pollen to kick up into the air and slowly drift away; dancing in the natural light of Phil's garden. He let out a frustrated sigh as he watched the small particles twirl. He hated it when people ignored him. For peat sake, they summoned him here! Why would they have Phil summon him and then completely ignore him once he got here? He glanced over at the group that was huddled not too far from where he was sitting; they were probably talking about him. Jack growled at the thought, his fingers dug into the ground beneath him. He stopped when he heard the quite cries of the flowers that he had apparently been crushing. Panic seized his body as he shot up into the air, hovering, as he assessed the damage he'd just caused. He didn't mean to clench them so hard that their steams broke.

Jack reached for his inner magic and allowed it to flow through his body. Soon his hands began to glow a bright white, well except for his thumb. it was glowing green. He waved his hands over the broken flowers and watched as their bodies slowly began to mend themselves back together.

The guardians had been watching the situation with both interest and concern.

"Wait, So Jackie's ah spring sprite now?" Bunny blurted out, a slow grin growing on his face as he looked the boy over.

Phil pinched the bridge of his snout. He was already a thousand percent done with this.

"No Rabbit;" Phil sighed as he tried to find the right words to say since the big four hadn't fully understood the first two times he had tried to explain it to them. "Jack in reality is not even a sprite or a spirit."

That grabbed everyone's attention. North and Tooth regarded the ground hog with questioning looks; because honestly what would Jack be if not one of those two things?

Sandy however, well….the overwhelming amount of dread that he had just swallowed was making his stomach turn; he sent a sidelong glance at Aster. The pooka had his ears pinned to the back of his head and his fur had ruffled out into uneven patches. It was plane to see that Bunny had come to the same conclusion as Sandy had and was equally distraught.

"Ya can't be saying that Manny….." Aster began, only to stop himself, "No, no, Manny's ah lot of things but he isn't ah devil; he wouldn't do that to anybody, especially not a child!"

Sandy frowned and placed a hand on Bunny's shoulder; trying to offer him a little comfort. After all he and Bunny were the oldest of the guardians and they had seen a lot of things in their long lives. A lot of horrible things.

"I don't know what to tell you, but he did. He asked me to keep it quite as long as I could; he said the news would upset you. I don't think he was expecting you to care enough to come looking for Jack." Phil said quietly.

Bunny stood there silent, if he had been human all the color would have drained from his face. Manny had promised him….

"Bunny what is going on?" North bellowed, hoping to gain some control of the situation. "What did Manny do to Jack?"

The pooka ran a paw over his ears and sucked in a deep breath, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to leak.

"Do you remember what I said about my people's stature during the Golden age?" Bunny asked quietly.

Tooth's wings stopped their fluttering, and she slowly sunk to the ground. She knew that Aster hated talking about his dead race. The memories were too painful.

"Aster, you don't—" Tooth began only to be cut off by the slightly enraged pooka.

"With all due respect Shelia, I do. Especially since this involves Jack."

Aster turned his attention back to North, who was frowning at him, pity clear in his eyes. Aster looked away, that was something he always hated; pity.

North swallowed "Your people were considered to be useless animals, only good for farming and fighting. They had little rights."

Aster nodded. "It got worse during the fearling war. You see, after it was apparent that the united planets were losing the battle against…" He paused and gave sandy an apologetic look. Koz had been Sandy's best friend before the fearlings possessed his body and turned him into pitch black. "The united planets started looking for other ways to stop Pitch. So they began kidnapping pooka. It didn't matter how old they were. The experiments were done on everyone, from kits to elders. They were determined to make them into obedient weapons, super soldiers. One of the worst experiments that was done was something called project cyclical. Essentially what they would do is submerge a pooka into ice water till he or she drowned, then they would use dark magic to bring them back. They had been experimentally mashing spells together to get the result they wanted, the first few times were apparently horrid. They were able to bring the corps back to life, which in itself is supposed to be excruciating; but the last part of the spell always back fired. The pookas bodies were so badly distorted by it that they…." Aster sobbed unable to finish his sentence. He took in another big breath and waited for his voice to even out before continuing "But eventually they got the right combination and the spell worked; but the process was just as painful. They wanted their new soldiers to be obedient; so they also made sure the process would affect their memory. Every few months there set powers would change, and their memories would be wiped out. They were only permitted to remember what their commanders allowed them to, which meant things like love; friendship and family were out of the question. They were only allowed to remember war and heartache, and pain….. They were called seasonals because they could immediately adapt and control the weather on any planet they were sent to fight on…"

Tooth covered her mouth, tears leaking down the side of her face. "You think that Manny did that to Jack…."

Bunny looked over at Phil for confirmation; but the ground hog looked just as upset as the rest of them.

"All Manny told me was that Jack was called a seasonal and that his memories and appearance would sometimes change with the seasons, he never told me…I just thought he was just a new kind of immortal….I didn't…."

Bunny smiled sadly and place a paw on the ground hogs shoulder. "It's alright Phil; Manny wasn't totally honest with you. Actually he hasn't been totally honest with any of us."

"Who's Manny?"

Bunny jumped in surprise and whirled around to find Jack floating just behind him.

"Uhh… how long were ya standing there?" Bunny questioned.

Jack tilted his head to the side. "Only the last couple of seconds, I wanted to ask you why I was called here. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of busy…."

Bunny shared a glance with his other teammates before turning his attention back to Jack. "Jack, do you recognize me at all?"

Jack paused and looked Aster over more carefully, before a look of recognition dawned on his face. "Yeah," Jack chirped. Hope started to swell in Asters chest. "You're the Easter rabbit right?"

The hope that Aster had been feeling completely vanished and was replaced with an ounce of dread. Jack didn't remember any of them.

"Sure, that parts true, but do ya remember anything else about me? Like maybe the last time we had a conversation together?" Aster asked again.

"Conversation together?" Jack repeated with confusion. "Dude, I've never even met you before."

Aster felt like he had just been stabbed. Jack and him where just starting to get along….now all that hard work he and the other guardians had put into making jack feel like he was accepted was gone; taken away by a lunar king that had no right to do such a horrible thing in the first place.

"That's not true Jack you've met each of these people before." Phil said.

Jack raised his eyebrow. "What? No I haven't, the only person I've met outta this group is you!"

Realization swept over bunny. Manny had made Phil into Jack's commanding officer. The ground hog was the only person he would ever remember every time the seasons changed. They would have to fix that. Aster was sure that he could beat some sense into the man in the moon and make him change things; but he would deal with that later. Right now Aster had to focus on Jack.

"Jackie we need to have a talk." Phil said with a sad smile, "Why don't we all head back to my burrow and we'll figure things out over lunch."

-ROGT-

Jack sat there dumbfounded. He wasn't sure what to believe. These strange Immortals were his friends and teammates. The man in the moon had made him into the guardian of fun? His hands were shaking as he brought his drink to his lips. The cool water helped to clear his overwhelmed mind.

Aster placed what was supposed to be a comforting paw on Jacks shoulder but by the way the boy reacted to it, you would have thought he'd just been burned. He leaped up from his chair and stumbled over his feet before finally falling on his rear. Bunny blinked in shock.

"You are alright Jack?" North asked as he shared a concerned look with his other comrades.

Jack panted for a few seconds, trying to get a hold of the useless adrenaline that was now pumping through his body. He wasn't used to being touched, the only time he ever was, was because someone was trying to hurt him. His water had spilt all over Phil's bear floor. Jack immediately jumped up form where he was sitting, grabbed a handful of napkins off the coffee table and began cleaning it up; squeaking out a rushed apology to the ground hog.

Phil got up from where he was sitting and caught Jack's hand. Jack was familiar with Phil's paw, he knew that Phil wouldn't hurt him so he didn't react as badly as he did to Aster touching him, but he still flinched.

"Its fine Jack, just leave it there." Phil said as he tried to usher Jack back into his seat.

"But—."

"It's a dirt floor Jack, and it was only water, it'll dry on its own. I'm more worried about you."

"About…Me?" Jack repeated as if he couldn't believe it. Phil never worried about him, he never cared…..Jack only saw him once a year after all, so it's not like he was expecting him too…..he was nothing but a small blimp on the ground hogs radar.

"Yeah, you, ya Gumby! We all care about ya." Aster said carefully, he could tell that all of this was beginning to be a bit much for Jack. Aster didn't blame him though. He was sure that everything that had happened to Jack severely messed with his head.

Jack felt tears gather at the corner of his eyes, this was all he wanted, everything he'd asked the moon for and he couldn't even remember it.

-Rotg-

**So love or hate? Should I continue? Let me know in a review! Have a nice night guys! **


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